Valencia MotoGP: Iannone leads Miller in first practice

Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone set the pace in Friday's opening MotoGP practice session in Valencia, as title rivals Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez finished fourth and fifth.

Iannone, whose Suzuki was sporting the moustache fairing introduced at Motegi, took the lead with only three minutes left on the clock, and improved again next time around to end up with a 1m31.045s.

He was 0.312s clear of Marc VDS Honda rider Jack Miller, who led before Iannone.

The Australian took over from early leader Marquez with 10 minutes to go, but ended up crashing at Turn 6 and missed the final five minutes of the session.

The Marc VDS rider still took second, less than a tenth ahead of KTM's Pol Espargaro.

Dovizioso beat Marquez by 0.035s for fourth, as the Spaniard failed to improve in the latter stages having led the majority of the session.

The Yamahas of Maverick Vinales and Johann Zarco were sixth and seventh respectively, both seven tenths off the pace.

Cal Crutchlow and Dani Pedrosa brought four of the five Hondas into the top 10 with eighth and 10th, sandwiching KTM tester Mika Kallio.

Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro was 11th, one thousandth of a second quicker than Jorge Lorenzo on the third factory Desmosedici.

Aleix Espargaro was 16th on the best of the Aprilias on his return from injury.

Valentino Rossi had a quiet session in 18th, 1.493s off the pace, while Tech 3 stand-in Michael van der Mark propped up the times in 25th, more than three seconds adrift.

Alvaro Bautista was the only other rider to crash apart from Miller, the Aspar Ducati rider falling at Turn 2.